This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A temperature sensors for household appliance applications are typically required to meet certain industry safety standards, such as the IEC 60335-1 safety of electrical household appliances standard.
Generally speaking, such temperature sensors include a dielectric housing and a temperature responsive element that is received in the housing. In order to meet industry-accepted standards for such a construction, the housing must have a minimum wall thickness of at least 2 mm around the temperature responsive element and all components that can or will come in contact with the sensing medium. This construction requires increased material costs and slows down the thermal time constant for the temperature sensor.
Alternatively, to meet industry-accepted standards, a “dual insulation” construction can be used. In such a configuration, in addition to a dielectric housing, which may have a wall thickness of only 1 mm, a second and separate insulative coating of any thickness is applied to the temperature responsive element and all components that can or will come in contact with the sensing medium before they are assembled into the housing. Such a construction, however, requires time consuming and costly manufacturing operations of pre-coating and curing the temperature responsive element and other components with the secondary insulator.